How 40-Year-Old Sutton Foster Looks 26 on ‘Younger’
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Sutton Foster dishes to Yahoo Beauty on how she plays a 40-year-old pretending to be a 26-year-old on ‘Younger.’ (Photo: ‘Younger’/TV Land)
For actress Sutton Foster, 40 really is the new 20. On the new show Younger, the Tony-award winning actress is playing a 40-year-old divorcee so desperate for an entry-level job, she poses as a 26-year old. (As a 40-year old mom who moved to the burbs at 25 to raise a daughter, she was unemployable.) Along with an assistant position at a publishing house, a posse of new 20-something friends, and a heartthrob 26-year-old tattoo artist boyfriend—Foster’s character has a chance to relive her twenties. Except of course she’s not.
It’s a fun concept for a show, especially considering the chasm of difference between Gen-Xers and Millennials. Whether it is navigating hashtags or social media shorthand, nether-region grooming habits, or new party drugs—everything has changed. Airing Tuesday nights on TV Land, Younger is helmed by Darren Star, who as the creator of Sex and the City knows something about tapping into the moment. While the show is light, it also does a good job navigating issues of aging, beauty, and relationships. There’s a line in the show when Foster’s character asks, “Do I really want to trade my dignity, wisdom, and self-respect for another chance at my twenties?” The answer from actress Debi Mazar is a very affirmative yes.
Behind the scenes, veteran costume designer Patricia Field in responsible for helping Foster turn back time with a decidedly cooler, younger look. There’s also some beauty magic going on thanks to makeup artists Eldo Ray Estes, who used candy-colored eye makeup and highlighter to transform Foster into a younger version of herself.
The interesting thing is that in real life, age is proving to be an asset for Foster. The actress who claims she would never want to go back to her twenties just got married, had her solo debut at Carnegie Hall, and is clearly enjoying an incredibly fun role—maybe 40 is her best year yet.
Yahoo Beauty: To make the show work, you have to be believable as a 26-year-old, which is a lot of pressure when you are 40! When you got the role did you suddenly notice every little line?
Sutton Foster: I never really focused on my looks as much in my life. Suddenly I was buying every type of facial cream and eye cream, and I started getting more facials. I realized, my livelihood and the longevity of the show depends on my face! But the fact of the matter is I am 40 years old and, if I was trying to play a 26-year-old it would be different than playing a 40-year-old trying to be 26. I think of it like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. When you’re watching him as Tootsie, you always see that he is a guy. So, I think that that’s sort of important in this character too. I should hopefully be believable as both.
How do you play 26?
I think the concept of youth comes from within. There’s this sort of youthful exuberance and her outlook on life is different when I’m playing that side of her. I’m realizing it’s more than just, wrinkles and lifelines!
There’s definitely kind of world-weariness to Liza when you play her in scenes with her ex-husband versus the scenes where she’s in a bar flirting with cute boys.
Absolutely. I think it’s exciting to see the character be able to switch. Hopefully audiences root for her too. It’s like this idea of “Go live! Reclaim!” Who says that once you get older life has to be heavy and wrought? It can be fun and light and that’s all part of it too. So it’s kind of nice to see that she can be free in those moments in the bar when, you’re right, she’s sort of chewing on the boy in the band or whatever. It’s kind of nice to see both sides.
I know you worked with Sex and the City costume designer Pat Field on the costumes, but what about hair and makeup? How do you all decide how to turn back the clock through beauty changes?
They immediately knew they wanted to lighten my hair. I hadn’t colored my hair in, like, fifty years. It was long, straight virgin hair, so I was a little nervous about it, but I knew a big change was a good idea. They sent me to two different salons. One for the base color, and then the other where they painted the tips of my hair for that ombré thing. I was like, “Oh my God I’m not going to be able to pull this off!” Mia Neal, who did my hair, wanted to keep it full and long. It was Pat’s idea that every time I had a youthful look my hair is down, and every time I was adult Liza it is always pulled back, so you could really see a difference. For makeup, they used this pink primer underneath my makeup to keep me looking glowy.
What were some of the makeup differences between adult Liza and 26-year-old Liza?
The eye make-up for older Liza is more minimal. Oddly, we would use less concealer, it was just not as jazzed. Christian Dior would send all these awesome palettes so we just played. In our minds, we thought that’s probably what Liza’s doing. She’s trying to find the right look, she’s kind of playing around with makeup. We just wanted my make up to constantly be changing and evolving and to have it feel like it had a sense of play. There were all these candy colors to keep it really fun and youthful.
Did you learn any techniques to make you look a little younger that you actually like?
The big thing from the show that I kind of became obsessed with are chubby sticks. I love them. I’m not a huge lipstick fan or lip liner. The lip liners were making my look almost too sophisticated or too polished. We wanted it to look a little easier, so we used the chubby sticks from Tarte or Clinique. Love them. Now I always have one. That’s like my go to. I’ve got one in every purse.
Sutton Foster’s secret to looking younger: chubby sticks. (Photo: Instagram)
Were there other things that you discovered about the twenty-something world through filming that you didn’t know before?
I had no idea what Molly was. I had no clue! One of the cool things, I think, about twenty-something’s, especially in fashion right now, is this sense of anything kind of goes. Mixing high-end with more low-end basic stuff. Like, sweatpants with sequins. They were putting me in clothes where I was, like, “What?!” Ruched sweatpants with a sequin top and a tied around shirt and then, another layer. I was like, “This makes sense?” Then all of a sudden I would look in the mirror and be like, “This looks so cool!”
There is this sense as a twenty-something of finding your own style. You don’t just conform. Unlike when I was growing up and there were like two places to shop. People are, kind of, doing whatever they want to design their own personal style, which I think is really cool.
The whole being able to go back to your twenties and having relationship with the 26-year-old tattoo artist Josh, is almost like a fantasy for 40-something divorced women. How do you feel about the whole relationship part of the show?
I think that was interesting even filming it. There is the reality, yes, I am fourteen years older than him. And Nico who plays Josh, is a great guy. Obviously the show deals with his existence as a twenty year old, with the roommates, and the band, and the juvenile aspects of his life versus sort of where I’m at in my character’s life. That’s what I like about what the show does, yes there’s the fantasy aspect of it, but then there are also genuine feelings and the relationship becomes more real. I think that makes it more appealing and more complicated. I think as an audience member you go, she probably shouldn’t be with this guy. She should be with the older guy. The Charles character is the more reasonable, more viable, long-term thing. But, in the meantime, can’t she have a little fun, you know?
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